TRENDYOL BECOMES COUNTRY’S FIRST DECACORN

Trendyol, the e-commerce platform supported by the China-based Alibaba Group, has become Turkey’s first decacorn with a USD 16.5bn valuation after receiving USD 1.5bn in new founding. The Berlinbased Princeville Capital, the UAE-based ADQ and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) joined the new investment round led by the U.S.-based investment fund General Atlantic and the Japan-based SoftBank Vision Fund 2. “This investment will increase international interest in the country’s digital ecosystem and accelerate our sector’s development,” said Demet Mutlu, founder of Trendyol. Technology investor SoftBank Investment Advisers, Princeville Capital and ADQ made their first investments in Turkey through Trendyol. Mutlu noted that the investments will allow Trendyol to increase its contribution to direct and indirect employment to Turkey from 1.1 million to 2.4 million by 2023. “We’ll use this investment to make logistics and technological infrastructure investments, digitalize our tradespeople and SMEs and increase e-exports of Turkish products,” Caglayan Cetin, Group President of Trendyol, added.